9/11: As We Watched’ recounts the story of that day through the unflinching eye of ABC News, as the legendary Peter Jennings, Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulus, and dozens of other journalists rushed to the scene of chaos, ultimately delivering an unprecedented 83 hours of live coverage. Together, their live coverage, first-hand accounts and in-depth interviews provided American people with an honest and updated look at the events that shook the nation.
On April 29, 1992, the streets of Los Angeles erupted in violence and disorder, as news of the shocking verdict in the Rodney King trial swept through South Central L.A.. This one-hour special transports viewers back to the early ‘90s to experience the growing tension, aggravation and sense of injustice that sparked one of the most violent displays of civil unrest in US history.
On April 19, 1995, the deadliest domestic terror attack on U.S. soil occurred at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The bombing, carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, left 168 people dead and more than six hundred injured. McVeigh and Nichols parked a Ryder truck containing a 4,800-pound bomb near the freight entrance of the building and detonated the bomb. Damage from the explosion spread blocks away from the building, and could be heard from miles away. AS WE WATCHED uses archival footage from ABC News to detail how law enforcement and the FBI tried to piece together who could have carried such an attack. The special documents every moment of the FBI investigation, from the initial bombing to the eventual arrest and conviction of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
On April 19, 1993, FBI agents attacked a religious compound in Waco, Texas, occupied by a small obscure religious cult. 76 people, including 26 children, died. The repercussions of Waco are still being felt. What happened? How did it go so wrong?
The catastrophic Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine created the worst atomic energy accident in world history, endangering the lives of millions of people.
On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. This terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days.
In 1978, cult leader Jim Jones lures his followers to Jonestown, Guyana, where he commits a mass murder-suicide of 918 adults and children.